#reading shtetler angels

[shimmywhenyoucantbounce]

ID: a photo of a pencil drawing of a Little Ash outside a doorway with a mezuzah on it; a long furby is coiled around the mezuzah case, clutching it with three-toed feet that resemble the letter shin (which is also on the case). Little Ash recoils as the furby elongates towards him; his cat pupils are dilated. The words “בְּזֹאת הַדִּירָה לֹא תָבוֹא צָרָה” and“LET NO TROUBLE COME INTO THIS DWELLING” are written next to it: the Hebrew in large, sure, imposing letters; and the English in lighter, shakier caps between the Hebrew lines/end ID

Reposting this because @anonymousdandelion corrected me on some of the letters, helping me make them more distinct and also to not misspell words. Thank you!!

#described #image described #Little Ashmedai Shtetler #furby cw #furby mezuzah #things I’ve drawn #when the angels left the old country #please read this book it’s like honey and liquid gold and cozy blankets

[anonymousdandelion]

Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother (2.5K words)

Presenting a new Talmud-inspired When the Angels Left the Old Country fic, this one written in collaboration with @matt-in-the-hat!

I... am not sure what to say about this one, other than that I appreciate my estimable co-author for having had the fortitude to get through the parts of the fic that induced too much second-hand embarrassment for me to write. 😅 Fair warning that while the fic itself is rated T, it does feature the Shtetler chevrusas reading and discussing one of the more… NSFW passages of Talmud. Niddah 31a, to be precise.

"I don't think we studied this in my yeshiva," Little Ash hedged, trying desperately to come up with an answer that would impress the angel. "Perhaps it has to do with human anatomy. Do you know how conception happens?" Uriel shook its head innocently. "But you do, don't you?" "Uh, sure. Well enough, at least," Little Ash fibbed.

#when the angels left the old country #wtaltoc fanfic #dandelion fics #uriel federman #little ash #grandmother rivke #isaak shulman #malke shulman #talmud

[readingbooksinisrael]

Mid-Year Book Freakout 2023

1. Best book you've read so far this year

Well, I reread Spinning Silver/Naomi Novik again… But besides rereads I really loved two non-fiction books: Treaties, Trenches, Mud, and Blood/Nathan Hale. It’s a graphic novel with the characters being represented as animals, so I was really nervous at first that it would make light of something tragic but it didn’t at all, and I think the illustrations emphasized the horrificness while still being appropriate for its intended audience (4th graders). (It also finally convinced me to pick up Maus.) 

The other was The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos/Judy Batalion, which was an extensive following of a number of women resistance fighters in the ghettos, which is a subject that I hardly know about.

2. Best sequel you've read so far this year

It absolutely has to be Ribsy/Beverly Cleary, the last in the Henry Huggins series. I was nervous because it follows Ribsy the dog rather than Henry the human, but it was great. I liked the look at all the different families (except one) and Ribsy’s perspective. It nearly made me cry even/exactly when the good things were happening.

Also, special mention to The Chalet School in Exile/Elinor M. Brent-Dyer for acknowledging the murder of Jews by regular citizens back in the first year of WW2 when that’s something plenty of people refuse to admit to this day. (Though maybe it was easier then when it was an enemy country.)

3. New release you haven't read yet

All of them lol. I’ll choose six notables (one for each month):

The Dos and Donuts of Love/Adiba Jaigirdar--I loved Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating so much! I’m so excited about this I’m nervous

The Luis Ortega Survival Club/Sonora Reyes--I love a story about messed up experiences in high school

The Home for Wayward Girls/Marcia Bradley--See above

The Mimicking of Known Successes/Malka Ann Older--I heard it described as a Sherlock Holmes type mystery in space, and I’ve really wanted to read something by this author for a long time but this was the first book that really caught my eye

The Last Tale of the Flower Bride/Roshani Chokshi--It is my favorite sub-genre (fairy tale retelling) of a fairy tale that I find really interesting (Bluebeard) by an author I already know I enjoy

Sorry, Bro/Taleen Voskuni--Jews often feel that they have a lot of common with Armenians (for good reasons) so I’m really interested to read this story of someone claiming both her culture and her sexuality (even my mom was interested and she tries to not be homophobic but she winces at bi characters)

4. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year

Delicate Condition/Danielle Valentine. This absolutely sounds like a book that is going to make me cry.

5. Biggest disappointment

Catherine, Called Birdy/Karen Cushman. This seemed like a book that would be right up my alley--historical, mg, epistolary, rebellious and funny main girl character--but it just fell flat for me in so many ways.

6. Biggest surprise

Leave It to Beaver/Beverly Cleary surprised me by actually being pretty good, which you don’t usually expect for a novelization of a tv show. It wasn’t her best work, but I do want to read the rest of the series.

And, then, one I saved for here, Top Secret/John Reynolds Gardiner. This was recommended me as a funny, gross book and it was that (admittedly, a bit light on the grossness but what was there was good), but it also very much talked about repressing creativity for bad reasons and I loved that.

7. Favorite new author (debut or new to you)

A.J. Sass. I read Ellen Outside the Lines in one night and immediately put two more of their books on my tbr.

8. Newest fictional crush/newest favorite character

Just the one? Well, Ead Duryan from Priory of the Orange Tree/Samantha Shannon is exactly the type of character I love; but have you read about the angel/Uriel Shtetler from When the Angels Left the Old Country?! It thinks in such an interesting way about things and so it changes in a very odd way. (Also, it becoming more ‘human’ doesn’t make it stop using it/its pronouns!)

9. Book that made you cry

Ribsy, I’ve mentioned, but I don’t think any other book made me cry.

10. Book that made you happy

I reread The Girl With the Silver Eyes/Willo Davis Roberts to see if it still held up after over a decade since I first read it and it absolutely did. It acknowledges that grown-ups can make mistakes while trying to help children and that children have the right to defend themselves from that as well as actually evil adults. Also, read this fanfiction of Katie as an adult.

Riding Lessons/Jane Smiley also made me happy because it didn’t attempt to pathologise a kid whom I think would be pathologised today.

Tagging @ninja-muse @bookcub @opalescentswan @books-are-portals and @gigilberry (Only if you want to, obviously.)

#reviving booklr

[equalseleventhirds]

little ash doesn’t want to sleep bcos if he does he’ll go home and have to talk to his FATHER who will ask him what he’s DOING with his LIFE lmao

#reading shtetler angels #still on chapter 11 bcos unfortunately i had to do actual work again #'so how's school do you have a job are you seeing anyone' or the demon equivalent i guess #ashel would rather be perpetually sleep deprived than deal with THAT

[creekfiend]

Me, after reading Yisroel's story to my gf: "I cant sleep. You wanna split a bagel and I'll read the first chapter of the shtetler angels to you?" Her: "... is this a proposal?"

Omfg!!!

[the-knights-who-say-book]

July 2019 — i’ve been very busy barely learning Hebrew so not much got done in July, but I’ve been REALLY enjoying all the great things to read online this month! do check out the webcomics, poems and stories i’ve shared below because they are very fantastic

REVIEWS

Once and Future — ★★★★½

Only the Stars Know Her Name — ★★★½☆

BOOKS READ

Middlesex — ★★★★★

The Scarlet Pimpernel — ★☆☆☆☆

2 YAs for work

COMICS

Sex Criminals, Volume 3: Three the Hard Way — ★★★½☆

WEBCOMICS

Eerie Crests — dark and dreamy comic about a boy whose best friend (and crush) has gone missing in the forest (here are the characters!)

Evil Witch Allie — cute and creepy and ghosty!

Let Me Love You — extremely cute, simple fake dating comic

Retail Witch — human girl is hired at a store that caters to magical beings

A Glance Away — very short wlw train station meet cute

ONLINE LITERATURE

Why The Shtetler Angels Left The Old Country And What They Accomplished In America — an incredible ongoing story that’s like. jewish Good Omens except better than Good Omens

“wisteria//wisp-eria” — a poem about dark academia, young witches, Greek mythology, Sappho, and girls & loving girls

Glorify — a poem about unbelonging

Three of my new favorite poems in Porridge Magazine

BLOGS

Vicky Who Reads — young adult reviews, interviews, and cover reveals

The Quiet Pond — book news and reviews

Forever and Everly — reading updates and bookish community

#month in review

[portmanteaurian]

finished Delia Sherman’s Young Woman in a Garden the other day, which is a collection of short stories. By and large I really enjoyed it, though there were a handful of stories where she was out of her cultural wheelhouse and things suffered a bit because of it. It also had a beautiful cover, if that’s how we’re judging books now

I also finished @kuttithevangu‘s Why The Shtetler Angels Left the Old Country and What They Accomplished in America, which was published as a serial work right here on tumblr but is certainly novel LENGTH so i am counting it in my reading tag and you can’t stop me

anyway it’s very good and also free, so you should read it

#dorian reads 2k19

[rockleaves]

tumblr barely works on the wifi up here and discord does not work at ALL but i want to read kuzu’s shtetler angel story so bad

#t #curse u rural quebec wifi

[equalseleventhirds]

now I know that ashke and his artists will be solving his ghost problem themselves bcos that is how Stories go

but I am very much amusing myself with the idea of little ash rolling into town (with uriel ofc) like 'hello brothers I am visiting, I see ashke finally discovered jazz, hey why do you have so many ghosts, is this a hobby, what a weird hobby, can I eat that one's murderer'

#reading shtetler angels #little ash is terrible and he would love to see all these ghosts #but also would defos make fun of ashke over them #source: little ash has terrible youngest sibling energy and ashke has beleaguered middle sibling energy #and that is how that siblingness Works

[equalseleventhirds]

perhaps little ash had better stop wishing for things, bcos those things happen and suddenly he Regrets

he wanted the angel to try new things, and it followed him to visit reb fishl

he wanted the angel to not get distracted from him going to america, and it turned into uriel so it can multitask

he wanted the angel to maybe learn how to sleep inside its body, since it upset him when it left its body, and now that it’s human it has to do that and it WORRIES him

...hm. from the very start of the story little ash has wanted to go to america...

#reading shtetler angels #farragoofwires #i'm not tagging you in all my liveblogging bcos i'm doing it a lot and mostly just going 'i love everything about this' a bunch #but i think you might enjoy this take #also based on the bits of spoilers i've seen i'm p sure little ash winds up with Regrets about america too #but i'm sure it'll be fine in the end bcos as the angel told him it is never any trouble to him at all!

[equalseleventhirds]

last one i promise

gays look at little ash and place him firmly in the little sibling zone

#reading shtetler angels #rose considers him a baby brother #yisroel thinks he's like his youngest sister #it's the youngest sibling energy of him #...ok i'm done i just got very excited #this prequel was a Lot of shtetler angels content to process #and it just ties in so well with the main story #the parallels... amazing

[equalseleventhirds]

the angel who was not yet uriel: on a mission of Good to shtetl

little ash: is annoying & rude

the angel: well now i have to stay right here for centuries

#reading shtetler angels #starting thinking abt this bcos of kuzu's backstory posts #can you believe little ash annoyed his way into a relationship? what an icon #also can you believe that an angel who SHOULD be easily distracted #stayed for centuries in a shtetl so small it was just called shtetl just bcos little ash was there #and little ash was so interesting that in centuries it did not get distracted enough to leave him #and then it went with him to america and changed its whole nature so it wouldn't forget about him #bcos i am thinking about this CONSTANTLY

[equalseleventhirds]

It always found what it needed, and here it had, at last, found Little Ash.

I’M SO HAPPY ABOUT THIS

#reading shtetler angels #circumstances are bad but still! it always found what it needed! and it found little ash!!!

[equalseleventhirds]

some of the reasons rose cohen is extremely relatable:

baby gay who does not realize why she’s so mad her best friend married a Terrible Man

complete with extended rant about how if she were a man she would be utterly devoted to said friend

extremely limited tact

last time she touched a sewing machine she broke it

May Bite

#reading shtetler angels #there are many more reasons these are just a few

[equalseleventhirds]

uriel wakes up, contemplates the miracle of being alive, and then hits little ash with his own wrist. beautiful.

#reading shtetler angels #uriel is the BEST

[equalseleventhirds]

junior! i love junior! i have only just met junior but i love junior!!

#reading shtetler angels #he is there to do an angels job bcos he is helping! #he is bothering his brother and having a good time! #junior is GREAT!!! #also like it's been only a few paragraphs but i can Feel... little ash is the younger brother #is that how it works for ashmedais? i don't know! but little ash has younger sibling energy #and junior has older sibling energy #...actually junior has middle sibling who happens to be the oldest sibling in the room currently energy #i should know that is how i am with my baby brothers #and i know junior and little ash have many MANY brothers so it is most realistic for them both to be somewhere in the middle #but junior is definitely older than little ash. he is. he just is.